How God Used Three Christian Young Men to Stop an Islamic Terrorist

God empowers Christians to do the extraordinary: Three Christian young men tackled a ISIS Islamic terrorist hellbent on slaughtering passengers on a crowded train, disarmed him and saved hundreds of innocent lives in a courageous act.

U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Spencer Stone, U.S. Army National Guard Spc. Alek Skarlatos and Anthony Sadler, a California State University student, sprinted toward El-Khazzani, a 26-year-old ISIS Islamic African terrorist, as he pointed his weapon at them on a train from Brussels to Paris on August 15, 2015.

El-Khazzani was armed with an AK-47, a pistol, a box cutter, 270 rounds of ammunition and a bottle of gasoline during the high-speed railway ride to Paris. Knowing that at any moment, the terrorist could unleash his firepower and execute him on the spot, Stone tackled El-Khazzani.

Skarlatos wrestled the terrorist’s weapon from him. But the terrorist pulled out a box cutter and began slashing Stone.

All three men fought El-Khazzani and rendered him unconscious. Stone, Skarlatos and Sadler then tended to other injured passengers on the train until paramedics and police arrived.

The three young men made international news for their heroic efforts.

The three young men give all the glory to God for placing them on the train and preparing them for that critical moment. They have been friends since they attended Freedom Christian School in California together.

The mission statement of their evangelical school says, “Freedom Christian School is committed to providing a biblically-based, academically excellent education in a nurturing, family environment so its students can effectively accomplish the purpose for which they were created and impact the world for Christ… Students will know Jesus Christ as their Savior and their Lord, will demonstrate a desire to serve Him, and will be trained to live according to His teachings.”

“The odds of our exact situation happening to us are too astronomical to believe that it was just purely chance,” Skarlatos said. “I mean, we shouldn’t be here today, to be honest. I really think God had a hand in it.”

“It’s like we were training our whole lives for that moment without even knowing about it,” he said.

Stone, a trained paramedic who said he was raised in a Christian home and attended church every Sunday, added: “God, for me, is someone who is always there, who will always have my back – whether it’s a good situation or a bad situation.

“God is not going to put you through anything you can’t handle. I think that’s what I kinda fell back on in the moment on the train. At times, we’re vessels to be used by him to do his work. And it was an honor to do something that good. … I just want to earn the life we’ve been given by God.”

Anthony Sadler, who is the son of a Baptist minister, said he believes God not only put them there to save lives, He also planned to use the men to spread His message.

“I feel like we’re just affirming God’s plan for our lives by being where we’re supposed to be on the train that day and just the things that have happened since. It’s all just another step in the bigger plan that we’re just not aware of,” Sadler said.

“As far as on the train that day, you can’t almost deny that God had his hand on us because so many things could have gone the other way. It’s divine intervention. I feel like we were meant to spread the story, and it’s meant to touch people.”

Now Hollywood director Clint Eastwood is, in partnership with Warner Bros., retelling their story in the new film “The 15:17 to Paris,” which was released in theaters on February 9. Eastwood enlisted the three heroes to play themselves in the film, which has more filthy language and partying than families anticipate.

According to Plugged In, in the film the three Christians are frequently shown drinking beer, misusing the name of Jesus and using profanity. They are shown drunk in a night club in Amsterdam, which is the European capital city of legal prostitution and drug availability.

In the film, all three guys get exceedingly intoxicated knocking down multiple shots of liquor. You see them groggily waking up at noon the next day (in their hotel room) complaining about their hangovers. Spencer smokes a cigarette in one scene where he makes a rather profound statement, and one of his buddies jokes about what he really might be smoking.

There is an obvious conflict between their Christian testimony and what the film shows. Perhaps such conflicted testimony is helpful to show that God is merciful when troubled victims remember Him in critical moments, and the Islamic attack was a very critical moment.

If God can use three imperfect Christians from America, the largest Protestant nation in the world, to stop an Islamic terrorist, it is obvious that He can use America herself to stop a very large number of Islamic terrorists.

So why is not He doing it? Because America has other plans and, governmentally, she is not behaving with Christian motivations.

In fact, because mainly of NATO’s misguided policies, Islamic terrorists have invaded Europe, where the three young Americans suffered the attack.

Let us get the facts straight.

Europe is under the protection of NATO, which was created by the U.S. government.

So NATO should have as its absolute priority to protect Europe from Islamic invasion, but it is not doing it because it does not want to antagonize Saudi Arabia, the Sunni Islamic dictatorship which is a powerful ally of the United States. The overwhelming majority of Islamic invaders in Europe are Sunni.

NATO has not taken its responsibility to protect Europe from Islamic invaders, but it has been responsible for the current massive wave of invasions.

* Under left-wing U.S. president Bill Clinton, NATO bombed Christian Orthodox Serbia to create an Islamic enclave, Kosovo, in the 1990s. This enclave, created by NATO and America, is an open door in Europe for multitudes of Islamic terrorists and all kind of trafficking.

* Under left-wing U.S. president Barack Hussein Obama, NATO attacked Libya, and as a direct result of this illegal military intervention, made exclusively to please Saudi Arabia, Libya is today a passage point for multitudes of African Muslims invading Europe. Before NATO’s attack, Libya was a hindrance for such invasion. After the attack, Libya has been under influence of ISIS and other Islamic terrorist groups. As a State Secretary, Hillary Clinton helped to send arms from Libya, through CIA operations, to Sunni terrorists in Syria to overthrow the Syrian government and slaughter Christians.

* Even though not yet directly attacked by NATO, Syria has been a victim of illegal military operations, including from CIA, firstly under the Obama administration and now under the Trump administration. U.S. conservative pundits as Ann Coulter have condemned such illegal interventions. In Trump’s case, Coulter has reminded that for years Trump clearly condemned Obama for intervening in Syria and promised not to imitate Obama. Under Obama, Syrian Islamic terrorists were funded and armed to overthrow the Syria government. Such invasive and illegal policy continues under Trump.

The act of the three American Christians was heroic. But NATO’s actions, spurred by the U.S., have not been heroic.

Three American Christians gave a beautiful example to America, as far as their fight against a terrorist is concerned. God can use America’s Christianity to fight and defeat Islamic terror. But first America should change her policy of supporting Saudi Arabia by funding, training and arming Sunni terrorists. Such policy is anti-Christian, because in the Middle East and Africa, Sunni Muslims slaughter scores of Christians. In fact, ISIS, which Trump said in 2016 was created by Obama, is fully Sunni and a machine of Christian genocide.

A truly Christian attitude against Islamic terror is for America under Trump:

* to leave her illegal operations and presence in Syria and make reparations for the years of illegal American interventions in Syria.

* to arm Christian populations in Syria and Iraq that were victims of ISIS. If under Obama CIA operations armed Sunni Muslims to slaughter Christians in Syria and Iraq, why cannot under Trump CIA operations arm Christians to defend themselves? This is fair reparation.

* to work to abolish the Islamic enclave to Kosovo and make reparations to Christian Serbia.

* to guide NATO to protect Europe from the invasion of Sunni Muslims. If Saudi Arabia and Turkey are displeased with this security arrangement, America should shun these Islamic “allies” and expel Turkey from NATO. In fact, what is Islamic Turkey doing in NATO?

America does not like illegal invasions in her own borders. So why has she supported and done such illegal interventions in other nations? As Jesus said, “Always do for other people everything you want them to do for you.” (Matthew 7:12 GWV)

America under Trump can choose to continue the disastrous plan of appeasing Saudi Arabia by letting Europe unprotected, under NATO’s nose, from Islamic invaders, or can guide NATO to attack and defeat Islamic terrorists, including those whom American has funded, trained and armed for a long time.

America can and should fund, train and arm Christians in the Middle East for self-defense against Islamic violence. The three American heroes subdued a ISIS terrorist because they trusted God and because they had been trained by the U.S. military. Christians in the Middle East need the same training. They need U.S. arms.

While the three Christian young men from America were used by God to hinder an Islamic terrorist in 2015 in an Europe unprotected by NATO, America under Obama was actively encouraging such terrorists through misguided and perverted policies. God can and want to change such course. He can transform America from a nation that equips Islamic terrorists to a nation that defeats them.

The God who used the three American Christians against Islamic terror can use America too.

The three Christian young heroes are an example and model for America, which should fund, train, equip and arm Christians against the Islamic terror machine.

Three young men impacted the world because they were educated in evangelical Christian principles, even though they had a hard time to live out these principles! But they remembered God in the critical moment.

Author

Julio Severo is a Brazilian writer and blogger. He is the author of “Prophetic Prayers: Daily Prayer Guide Based on the Book of Proverbs,” a book published by WestBow Press, a division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan. Order at Prophetic Prayers. His English blog is: Last Days Watchman He also has blogs in Portuguese, Spanish and German.

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